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Working with booking statuses from booking invoices

Booking statuses help you track and manage each reservation’s progress - from new bookings to payments, cancellations, and completions.

You can update statuses directly from the Booking Invoice to keep your records accurate and communicate clearly with your Customers.

Learn what booking statuses are, how they work, how to change the booking status of a Booking Invoice, and how to trigger an email notification.

New to the Booking Invoice? Read the first article in this series for an introduction to the Booking Invoice.

 

Accessing the features mentioned in this article


Where can I find this feature using the top menu?

  • Click an active Booking ID anywhere in the system. For example, open the Booking Invoice from the Booking Index report (Reports > Booking Index > Booking ID > Booking Invoice > Booking Status). 

  • You can also enter the Booking ID in the Search field found in the main menu to bring up the Booking Invoice.

What more do I need to use this feature?

Which Checkfront version supports this feature - classic items, classic products, or both?

  • This feature is available in both our classic items version, using classic items (Inventory > Items), and our classic products version, using classic products (Inventory > Products).  → Learn more about products

 

What are booking statuses?

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Each booking in Checkfront has a status that represents its current stage in your booking workflow. Statuses determine how you organize, filter, and display bookings across your system (reports, calendars, manifests, etc.). 

Common examples include:

Status Description Example Trigger
Pending The booking has been created but has not yet been confirmed or paid for. Booker has submitted the form but has not completed payment.
Deposit The system has received a partial payment. Deposit processed online.
Paid The system has received a full payment and confirmed the booking. Final payment applied.
Cancelled The system records the booking as cancelled manually or automatically. Staff cancels the booking, or the cancellation applies.
Archived Booking is closed for changes, but retained for records After completion or long-term storage.

 

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Learn more about booking statuses

For a detailed look at booking statuses, including how to create custom booking statuses, check out the following article:

 

Changing booking statuses

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Booking invoice page with the booking status menu highlighted to change reservation status such as paid, pending, or cancelled.

As seen in the image above, a brightly coloured label in the top left corner of an invoice indicates its current status. You can change the status by doing the following:

  1. Open the booking invoice (from Reports → Booking Index or via search).
  2. Locate the current status label near the top of the invoice.
  3. Click the status dropdown to select a new status.
  4. Choose whether to send an email notification (toggle on or off).
  5. Click the Update button to confirm.
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Pre-bookings and void bookings

The system holds Customer data from pre-bookings and void bookings for up to 30 days. This timeline allows you to reconcile your reports and troubleshoot missing payments.

 

Sending email notifications

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Confirm update popup with the option highlighted to send an email notification when changing the booking status.

How do I change the status of a booking without emailing a Customer?

If you don't want to trigger a notification to send to customer or staff recipients, you can do so by turning the Send email notifications checkbox on or off.

  • Turn the toggle ON to notify the Customer of the new status.
  • Turn the toggle OFF to silently update the record without sending an email.

 

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What is an email notification?

An email notification is an email message sent to your Customers to confirm booking actions and may include a booking confirmation, a notice of changes to the booking, or a payment request. 

 

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Booking status change email

Choosing not to send an email notification for a booking status change prevents only instant notifications attached to that status from being sent at that time. The system continues to send scheduled notifications as planned.

 

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How do I email a Customer?

For step-by-step instructions on how to do this, please see the following help article:

 

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Learn more about email notifications

For a detailed look at booking statuses and email notifications, check out the following article:

 

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How do I make a bulk change to the status of bookings?

Check out the following article to learn more:

 

Next Steps

In the following article in this series, we explore adding notes to booking invoices.

 

 

< Introduction to the booking invoice and booking details     |     Adding notes to booking invoices >

 

 

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